amgid:
I am glad to hear it. What you need to do now is to read the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price (if you haven’t already); to gain a good grounding of LDS doctrine.
amgid,
I actually think that I spent TOO MUCH TIME first reading the D&C and PoGP before delving into my second (and then third) reading of the BoM. And, as I read many FARMS reviews, I realized that what many pointed out is true - those that are quick to jump to the ‘anti-Mormon’ side of the fence (which, I admit, is still the side I am on, although ‘anti’ sounds overly negative) often have read only the more controversial bits of the D&C and PoGP and have often
neverI don’t think that Amgid was a particularly righteous king. I chose it simply because it is short and cute and unique, and easy to pronounce and remember, and comes from the Book of Mormon. At first I thought of choosing Gadianton; but I decided against it because it has too many syllables and not so easy to pronounce.
Ha! Rather like why I chose “Ben” except that it is a short form of my real name (which is Benedict although everyone assumes ‘Benjamin’ and I gave up correcting folks years ago) and the first two initials of my last name (Dy) as the remainder is Polish which is so frequently mispronounced that I answer to anything that seems to begin with “die”. As to “Amgid” I think another good reason might be that he is something of a mystery - only mentioned once and not counted as either a righteous or an unrighteous ruler: unique and mysterious.
amgid:
I admit that I do not know a lot about the practice of the “extreme unction” in the RCC; but from what little I know, it would appear that in the RCC it is effectively a person’s “last rites”. You perform “extreme unction” on someone when they are almost at the point of death. You don’t do it when they catch a cold. It is a way of preparing someone to die, rather than helping them to live! In the LDS Church, any person no matter how serious or minor their illnesses might be, may request such a blessing; and its purpose is to help them recover, not help them to die!
Both the “rites” for the “Pastoral Care of the Sick” and “Pastoral Care of the Dying” are found in the U.S. published “Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum” outline the proper recipients for each type of anointing. “Viaticum” is, as you reference, properly, what could be called “last rites”, traditionally called the “commendation of the dying” but, as there is always a chance of recovery, one may receive “last rites” several times during one’s lifetime (personally, I have received “last rites” three times - each when I was in danger of death). You are correct in saying that anointing of the sick would usually NOT take place when an otherwise healthy man or woman may be suffering from a common cold - in that case one might ask for prayers, certainly, and a blessing, Again, I have received an “anointing of the sick” on four occasions - three before surgery which could well have had the outcome of death and once when I was suffering from an edema for which the treatment was experimentally and the outcome of the treatment in doubt. So the anointing of the sick is not really a preparation for death (although death may well be the outcome of the illness) where Viaticum is, indeed, a preparation for the possibility or certainty of death. The ONLY thing that I know of the LDS rite is what I read in a book about Mark Hofmann - that when a passer-by noticed that Hofmann was wearing temple garments after a bomb had exploded in Hofmann’s car and he was seriously injured, the LDS priest anointed him and “commanded him” not to die. If Hofmann had been Catholic and had it been a priest as the passer-by, he would surely have been dealt with (because of the apparent seriousness of his injuries) as an ‘emergency’ in which an abbreviated form of anointing would have taken place. We do not, however, anoint those already dead - in that case prayers for the dead are sufficient as the dead have passed from this life.
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